


Magic Story You've Been Told

by FeatherandStorm



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon), Tangled (2010)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Also kind of a college au, Dungeons and Dragons AU, Gen, Modern AU, Non-Graphic Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-04
Updated: 2021-02-05
Packaged: 2021-03-14 13:35:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 16,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28546449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FeatherandStorm/pseuds/FeatherandStorm
Summary: When Cassandra finds a ghost in her new apartment, she’s less than thrilled. Before she knows it, the ghost has convinced her and her friends to play a game of Dungeons and Dragons. But when the fictional world of Valadia turns out to be not so fictional, Cassandra, Rapunzel, Eugene, and Varian will have to rely upon more than their dice rolls if they want to make it home alive.Roll initiative!
Relationships: Cassandra & Zhan Tiri, Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider/Rapunzel, unrequited Cassandra/Rapunzel
Comments: 3
Kudos: 23





	1. Prologue + Map

**Author's Note:**

> This story started as a joke that Varian had high Intelligence and low Wisdom. Hope you all enjoy!
> 
> Thank you to @daylightlucidity for dealing with my nonsense and being my amazing editor!

Prologue

_“This place is a message... and part of a system of messages... pay attention to it!_

_Sending this message was important to us. We considered ourselves to be a powerful culture._

_This place is not a place of honor... no highly esteemed deed is commemorated here... nothing valued is here._

_What is here was dangerous and repulsive to us. This message is a warning about danger._

_The danger is in a particular location... it increases towards a center... the center of danger is here... of a particular size and shape, and below us._

_The danger is still present, in your time, as it was in ours._

_The danger is to the body, and it can kill._

_The form of the danger is an emanation of energy._

_The danger is unleashed only if you substantially disturb this place physically. This place is best shunned and left uninhabited.”_

_– Marker for the Waste Isolation Pilot Project_

Inky. Starless. Barren. Void. Many had tried to capture the oily darkness that pooled and billowed, but what they never quite grasped was the cold. The cold that breathes after dark. Ever present. Clinging. Deep. Silent.

Void is perhaps a cacology. The void was not empty. Rather, it twisted and warped into the purest essence of fear, a wholly individualized and unique experience. For many native to this plane, fear’s raw grasp was too weak to cloud their eyes and they saw the world for what it was. But for one, trapped for an eon or more, this was an empty world of mist and shadow. She wandered the Klein bottle of her domain, paradoxically contained and infinite, consumed with a rage that had long since cooled to grief. That was until the tear.

Nothing is impervious to the wear of time. Given long enough, even reality can be strained by the press of another dimension. A single drop slid through the rip between worlds. A drop of color. Green. She held out her hand to catch the second drop. Blue. She cupped the drop delicately in her palm and slowly the drop’s iridescence leached into her pallid skin, chasing the gray away.

 _Appropriate,_ she mused. The blue quickly spread and she felt a tentative stirring in her chest, a spark of magic, rekindled like a whisper on a once dying ember. In time, she could feel the rise of her slowly reawakening magic. Not strong enough to escape, but just enough to plan and to perhaps hope.

“Kheper.”

Her bell-like voice echoed through the long-held silence. For a moment all held their breath. Stillness settled over the land. Shy at first, a chrysanthemum bloomed at her feet. Then another and another until life and color poured out from her in all directions. For the first time since her imprisonment she let a smile light her face. She reached down to pluck the chrysanthemum, sighing as her fingers passed through.

“It will do. Now to assemble the players.”

Her eyes glowed with knowledge of an age past and unknowable:

_A party of four champions is sought_

_One forlorn to untie the knot_

_One abandoned to make open the way_

_One forgotten to conquer and slay_

_A final companion to open the door_

_To end this exile and settle the score_

Zhan Tiri grinned a terrifying smile and her delicate laughter once again rang out. The beasts of nightmare and shadow recoiled in a fear that they had never known and sank into the safety of their darkness.

\-- 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to @ChaosOS_59 for the wonderful map!


	2. Chapter 1: Sing Me to Sleep

_“All that we see or seem_

_Is but a dream within a dream”_

_-Edgar Allen Poe, A Dream Within a Dream_

Historic row home, original hardwood floors, one bed, one bath. Furnished. Pets Allowed. Cassandra reread the listing as she stood, keys in hand. _2903 - Apartment 3_. This was definitely the place. Cass surveyed the front; she hadn’t had the chance to actually look at the apartment before signing the lease. It had been a last-minute decision after all. Three concrete steps to the door, a delicate iron handrail, there was even a Bradford pear shading the small front yard. Any college senior would be thrilled to live there. Cass hated every brick of it.

Cassandra glared at the pear tree, scoffed at the handrail, and wrinkled her nose at the steps. If she was honest with herself, and she usually wasn’t, her disdain probably didn’t have anything to do with the apartment. It _was_ a nice spot and she was _lucky_ to have found it on such short notice. Cass sighed and slid the key into the front door.

The door opened into a foyer, tasteful black and white checkered tiles marched neatly across the floor only to clash horribly with the soft yellow and lavender wallpaper. Upon its construction a hundred years ago, the originally bold gold and plum walls might have been seen as quirky and artistic, but time had aged the wall paper enough that the whole effect was rather gauche. To the right stood a solid wooden door with a welcome mat and a sign on the door that read _None of this Nonsense, Please_.

Cassandra cocked her head. It was the first day and she already had strange neighbors. The hall’s only other feature was a large carpeted staircase set against the opposite wall. The first few stairs groaned, but the rest of the staircase was sound enough. She reached out to trace the wall paper as she climbed, and a forgotten memory of the same faded colors floated to the surface of her mind. Reflexively, Cassandra flinched back and curled her hand into a fist as she stalked up the rest of the stairs.

The second floor was a jewel green, the walls likely re-papered in the last few years. The whole space glowed with the sunlight that shone through the window at the end of the hall. A carefully maintained pot of flowers sat by the door. The arrangement was beautiful but the composition was strange. Purple geraniums mixed with henbane, bleeding hearts, and something that looked suspiciously like a Venus flytrap. A creak behind the door jolted Cass and she realized that she had been staring. Readjusting the carrier in her hand, she turned back to climb the last flight of steps.

To Cassandra’s surprise the third floor welcomed her with walls painted a calming blue, completely ordinary. Unlocking the front door, Cass gently placed the carrier on the floor before letting its sulking inhabitant out.

“What do you think Owl?” Owl bolted down the hall into what Cass assumed must be the bedroom. Cass leaned against the door. “I know what you mean.”

Her pocket buzzed. She absently reached into her jacket pocket to fish her phone out. A text from Rapunzel.

_Just wanted to see how you were doing with the move :)! Come over and have pizza with Eugene and me when you finish!_

Cassandra scowled. The last thing that she wanted to do right now was go over to Eugene and Rapunzel’s apartment and see Eugene. Cass leaned back and banged her head on the door a few times, trying to think of a response that wouldn’t prompt Rapunzel to try and force her to socialize.

_Sorry. Can’t. Not feeling well._

She deleted the text, no good. Rapunzel would bring pizza over if she thought Cassandra was sick. She tried again.

_Not feeling up to it._

Even worse. The last thing she wanted was for Rapunzel to call her and ask what was wrong. No, she needed something more neutral.

_Actually, I’m feeling pretty tired. Maybe next week :)._

She threw on a smiling emoji at the end to lighten the tone. That should be enough to pacify Rapunzel for now. Cassandra put her phone away and walked back downstairs to unload the rest of her stuff from the car, deciding that tonight was probably a wine and top ramen night.

Cassandra dropped the last box of books before she collapsed on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. Cracks like spiderwebs gracefully spiraled out from the center. They reminded her a little bit of constellations. She thought about the silly little stars that Rapunzel had painted on their ceiling freshman year in UV reactive paint so their RA wouldn’t catch them. Cass rolled over and groaned into her pillow. There was a thump on the bed and a small black paw prodded her arm.

“Meow?” Owl prodded her arm again. Cassandra briefly thought about shoving him off the bed, but thought better than it, reaching out to stroke his chin. Owl purred appreciatively before stretching his neck to nibble on her fingers. “Meow?” She looked over at the clock and stretched.

 _Better feed Owl._ Cassandra got up and wandered into the kitchen, nearly stumbling over a box of books. Owl raced after her, weaving through her legs as she fished the cat food and a bowl out from the newly filled cabinet.

“Stop it Owl, you’ll make me trip,” Cassandra scowled. Owl sat down and gave her a quizzical stare.

“MEOW!”

“Yeah, yeah just give me a second,” she said with the edge of annoyance. It was a little too early for her to make anything for herself, so she poured a glass of wine and began to put away her box of books. She gazed at the box fondly and stroked the worn cover of the top book.

Although she was dead set on becoming a psychologist, the whole learning how to fix yourself to help other people thing, she had always loved reading and writing. Not that many people knew that she had picked up a Creative Writing double major her sophomore year. As much as she enjoyed reading novels, what she really excelled at was poetry. Not even Rapunzel knew that she regularly recited at the open mic night at Topper’s, the bar around the corner from Rapunzel and Eugene’s new apartment. Cass wanted to tell her, but she was a little embarrassed. What if Eugene made fun of her poetry or worse, what if Raps didn’t like it?

She slid the box over to the partially filled bookcase and grabbed a wooden step ladder, a relic from her freshman year dorm. Though it creaked like the hull of a ship, it had never once failed her.

She felt the snap before she heard it, the middle step of the ladder disappearing beneath her foot. In a panic, she blindly grasped at the shelves, reaching out to catch anything to slow her fall. Nearly tipping over the entire bookcase, Cassandra dropped her other foot onto the top step to steady herself just in time.

 _Thud._ Something struck the floor. Spooked, she clambered down from the ladder and looked around. Seeing nothing on the floor, she peeked under the bookcase. The corner of a thick tome stared back at her. She straightened up and made to move the bookcase away from the wall, using her shoulder for leverage. The bookcase slid forward with a moaning of wood to reveal a book caught against the wall, covered in spider webs and…a house centipede carcass? She shivered. Insects had never bothered her, but house centipedes had never been her thing. So many legs.

Cassandra stroked the book’s leather spine, so old that the title had long since faded, before gripping the corner to roughly pull it out. A cloud of dust followed and the bookshelf quivered in protest. Readjusting her grip, she slid the shelves back in place before anything else could fall. Owl poked his head around the kitchen door frame to investigate the great disruption during dinner time. She barely looked up to waved him off, too curious about her strange find.

The book’s cover was vaguely warm to the touch, but Cassandra assumed that must have been at least partially due to the apartment’s lack of air conditioning and the sweltering late August heat. She took a deep breath and blew the dust off of it to reveal a rich burgundy, dark as the glass of wine that sat abandoned on the table. Frowning at the color’s vibrancy, Cass opened the tome to the title page: _Kinder und Hausmärchen, Ester Theil._ She pulled her phone out to google translate, “Children’s and Household Tales''. A cold seeped into Cassandra’s hands causing her fingertips to tingle.

An original Grimms’ fairy tales book. Where did it come from? How had it come to be here, in Cassandra’s house? A shiver ran down her spine and she had the feeling that something was off.

With shaking hands, she gingerly put the book down on the table and walked off to her bedroom. Maybe she would focus on unpacking that room instead. This book was certainly tomorrow's problem.

A wind blew through the apartment, gently tugging at the curtains, disturbing the elegant film of dust that rested on the lamp shades. It looped through the rafters before quietly crashing into the windows, for not a single one stood open.

A great wall of thorns loomed in front of her endlessly stretching as far as the eye could see.

_Cassandra._

The wind beckoned her, tugging at her curls.

 _Casandra,_ it whispered again. She pulled herself to her feet before letting the wind guide her. The air was heavy, filling her with an instinctual dread. Something was coming.

Leaves swirled in the air around in a constant dance of movement. Each seemed to whisper to Cassandra, calling for her attention, but the words were strange and she could not quite make them out. She thought about calling out, but she had a feeling that she needed to respect the silence. Her footsteps quickened until she started to run, chasing the wind as it danced along the mysterious wall. Then, as suddenly as it began, the wind stopped and the world was filled with stillness.

She stood before a great door, carved in an ancient wood that she could not identify. The door was so tall, that she had to take several steps back before she could properly see it. Runes crawled up the sides in a sprawling script that she could not read. In the center of the door carved in the detail of an illuminated manuscript were six panels.

The first panel depicted an enormous toad, its mouth twisted in a fanged grin, its skin grotesquely bubbling. Despite its appearance, there was a strange warmth to its expression.

The second panel depicted a woman with hair half pulled up in elegant buns, reaching up towards the lowest branch of a tree whose trunk dominated the panel. Despite being drawn in profile, Cassandra had the distinct feeling that the woman was looking out at her with a Cheshire grin.

The third panel was badly charred and only the sharp glint of reptilian eyes remained.

In the fourth panel, a woman emerged from the rough surf of a raging ocean. Her face was angular and hard and she gazed out with the eyes of an eel. Even worse, from her waist twisted a spiny, impossibly long tail, curling like a sea serpent in an antique map.

Though the face of the fifth panel was also badly damaged, she could make out the shape of a human dressed in fine embroidered clothing. He was surrounded by all manner of books and inventions half complete, but the most interesting feature was the telescope that stood at his side, carved with intricate runes similar to the ones on the door’s edges.

The final panel was a humanoid figure with carved tusks protruding from his mouth. He clutched a helmet in one hand at his side, scuffed and dented with use. In the other, he brandished a shield. The crest showed a serpent twisting around a trumpet shaped flower. It reminded her a little bit of a caduceus. He stood on the edge of a cliff, watching the world burn around him.

The wind tickled Cassandra’s ear as if to remind her that she was looking for something. No…she was looking for _someone_. The wind picked up again and she could feel herself being drawn towards the door. The doors responded to her first step forward and welcomed her by parting, swinging open on silent hinges.

Cassandra peered into the dark and was surprised to recognize the twisting path ahead. A hedge maze of sorts, similar in a fashion to the one that she and Rapunzel used to play in as children. Mist covered the maze floor, swirling like the surface of a pond on a windy day. Cassandra gathered her wits and stepped through.

As soon as she was inside, the doors swung closed, trapping her inside. Cassandra was swallowed by the darkness. If the silence before had bothered her, it was oppressive now. Cass could hear her own heart pounding in her ears.

 _Cassandra_. The whisper filled her with a strange urgency and she began to walk.

There! She caught a flash of purple so brief that she was sure that she had imagined it disappearing around a corner. She started to jog. Left. Right. Another flash of purple. This time she was almost certain that she had seen a shoe disappearing behind a wall.

She picked up her pace, shifting into a run. She didn’t know why, but she had to catch up. However, the faster she ran, the more the walls of the maze closed in on her. Vines stretched out to grasp her arms. Thorns tried to tangle in her hair. Roots threaded their way around her feet. The hedges closed in behind her, blocking the great door and any hope of going back. Cassandra could feel the maze’s hunger prickle at the back of her neck with malintent. Forgotten was her urgency to find the strange purple. Panic rising in her chest, she broke into a full out sprint. A branch caught her wrist. She wrestled her way out, but the thorns stung as they bit into her skin.

Quick as she was, Cassandra could not evade the maze forever and a root finally snagged her ankle. She fell hard, her knees noticing that the dirt path had been replaced with cobblestone at some point during her mad dash. She clawed at the cobblestone, desperate for purchase as the roots that bound her ankles dragged her towards the maze’s hungry maw.

Cassandra screamed and bolted up in bed.

_Breathe. Breathe. It was just a dream._

Cassandra ran a shaky hand through her hair, the snarls from tossing and turning catching on her fingers. She remembered the night terrors that she got after everything with her mother, but she couldn’t remember them ever getting so bad. It had seemed so real. Unlike the night terrors, this dream didn’t dissipate. She could vividly picture the door and the maze and her terror as if she had actually been there.

As her racing heart slowed, Cassandra was able to focus on detangling herself from the sheets. She tumbled out of bed and checked the clock. 7:00 AM. Sighing, she got up to feed Owl and grab coffee. She knew that she would never be able to fall back asleep.

The knock on her door came halfway through her second cup of coffee. _What could anyone possibly want before 9 am on a Saturday_ , she grumbled to herself. At least she had the good sense to shower after feeding Owl. The idea of answering the door dressed in her plaid pajamas smelling of fear was mortifying. A second knock broke her out of her thoughts of her dream and she jumped up to answer it.

A shorter woman a few years her senior stood on the landing. Her auburn hair was piled neatly in a bun and a set of square glasses perched on her nose.

“Can I help you?” Cassandra did her best to squash the accusatory tone that was begging to be attached to her words.

“Hi. Hello. I’m Molly. I live in apartment one.” Molly smiled brightly. Cassandra nodded, mentally assigning her to the apartment with the _None of that nonsense, please_ sign. Molly held out a jug to Cassandra. “I just wanted to welcome you to the building. Ester and I were so curious about the new tenant.” Molly paused and looked expectantly at Cassandra.

“Right. Cassandra. Thank you.” She reached out to take the jug.

“I brew beer in my spare time,” Molly supplied, answering the question on the tip of Cassandra’s tongue. “Oh, hello there! Who’s this?” Molly squatted down and began to gently scratch Owl’s chin. He tipped his head back and gave her an appreciative purr. Cassandra leaned against the door frame and some of her hostility dissipated. Owl had excellent taste and she decided that getting to know her new neighbors was not necessarily a bad idea.

“Would you like to come in? I just brewed a fresh pot of coffee,” Cass offered in an uncharacteristically friendly gesture. Molly smiled and followed her in.

Despite a few awkward moments, Cass was surprised to find that she didn’t hate Molly’s company. Molly was a PhD candidate in biochemistry and had a healthy love of literature and all things fantasy. She was even able to recommend a book or two to Cassandra. The conversation was appropriately light and shallow until it was time for Molly to leave. She was just about to begin walking down the stairs, waving at Cassandra as she went, when she paused in surprise.

“What?” Cassandra asked.

“Hmm? It’s nothing, just I don’t remember this apartment having a ghost. Must be new.” Molly shrugged. Humming to herself, she disappeared down the staircase.

Cassandra gapped at the empty landing. _Ghost?_

The memory of the dream began to simmer at the edge of her consciousness before she aggressively stamped it out. _Why do the really crazy ones always look so normal?_

Cassandra didn’t notice the strange spiderweb like cuts that gracefully traced across her wrist until several hours later. Instead of fading by nightfall as she would have expected, the scar was traced over in a light lilac ink, leaving the impression of a faded tattoo. When a memory of the hedge thorns catching her wrist surfaced, she stamped that out too.

Dappled light filtered through the leaves, casting the world in a mosaic of greens and browns. Cassandra leaned back, enjoying the soft bite of bark into her back, as she inclined her chin toward the light. The branch that she sat on was enormous, the tree even larger. High enough to clear the treetops, the whole world lay spread before her. In the east trees stretched for almost as far as the eye could see before clashing with some sort of vast prairie. To the south the largest river that Cassandra had ever seen cut a dramatic serpentine path, riddling the countryside with marshes like bruises on the otherwise unbroken sea of grasses.

“Cassandra. It is so good to finally meet you.” A musical voice drifted through the leaves. Cassandra glanced around, searching for the voice’s source. “I had expected to talk to you in the labyrinth, but it can be … temperamental towards guests.”

Cassandra jumped at the speaker’s sudden appearance beside her.

A strange wave of familiarity washed over her when she saw a child perched on the branch next to her. The girl’s lavender hair was interwoven with a strand of pearls and pinned back in two neat buns on either side of her head. Her antique dress was cut in the Victorian style with tasteful flounces of taffeta. Everything about her was prim and delicate, from her rod straight posture to the way that she folded her hands in her lap as if she was patiently waiting. Cassandra frowned. As familiar as the girl’s appearance was, Cassandra could not place the girl in her memory. She was almost certain that they had never met.

“Who are you?” Cassandra stared at the girl, waiting for the puzzle pieces to knit themselves together, annoyed when they did not.

“A friend. Or at least I’d like to be.”

“A friend, huh?”

The girl’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly, the only indication of annoyance on her otherwise perfect mask of congeniality.

“Have you been enjoying the view?” The girl adjusted her delicate white gloves.

“It’s,” Cassandra’s forehead scrunched in confusion as she took a closer look at the landscape, “actually, where are we?” She had never seen a skyline like this before.

“An oubliette,” Cassandra thought she heard the girl spit under her breath. “A dream,” she said. The girl locked eyes with Cassandra. “Though I’m sure you already know that this kind of dream has the tendency to follow you.”

She looked meaningfully at Cassandra’s wrist. She instinctively tugged her sleeve down to hide the curling lines. The girl grinned before turning back towards the view.

“The Ido, the River of Time,” the girl gestured towards the winding silver. “Many believe that it originates from a single pool of water, smooth as glass where light and color are one and the same. Some say it is the source of magic, a single sip of water from the pool will bring immortality. Likewise, the gods jealously guard it against those with…unsavory intentions.

“Others believe that long-ago, as Time made their lonely journey across Valadia, they spotted the Ido, one of the mountain’s daughters, as she combed her hair beside her sacred pool. Overcome with love and entranced by her beauty, Time stopped to gaze upon her tresses. Weeping at her smile, their tears caused the pool to overflow, sweeping down from the mountains into the sea. The river was named after the daughter that stopped Time. The great Ido.” The girl tipped her head to the side as if considering an unappealing though. “They weep still.”

Cassandra stared at the girl, bewildered by the mismatch between her youthful appearance and her antiquated speech.“I’m sorry, what?”

The girl stared at Cassandra for a long while and she got the distinct feeling that she had missed something. The girl sighed and gave Cassandra a meaningful look before continuing. “The story is of little consequence, Cassandra, what matters is that you’re here.” Cassandra scrunched her nose, confusion and dread settling like a rock in her stomach. The girl grinned an eerie smile.

“How do you know my name?”

Instead of responding, the girl reached over and gave Cassandra a shove. The bite of the branch disappeared and for the briefest second, she was weightless. Then she was falling. And falling. And falling. The dappled light shattered into a kaleidoscope. Pressure built up in Cassandra’s chest and she was drowning. The shadows and light bled into one another in a tumultuous riot of color. A scream clawed its way up her throat.

Cassandra sat upright in her bed as a heavy body slid off her chest and thudded in her lap. Owl grumbled in protest. _Breathe. Breathe._ For the second time in two days, Cassandra ran a shaky hand through her hair as she attempted to calm her racing heart.

 _It's just stress_. _Classes start tomorrow and with the whole apartment debacle of course I’m on edge._ She didn’t feel reassured.

After a shower, Cassandra felt more herself, even deciding that she had just enough time to re-dye the blue streaks in her hair before Rapunzel showed up. Twenty minutes later and there was a fiercely excited knock on her door. Cassandra unlocked the door and was immediately wrapped up in a crushing hug.

“Cass! It's so good to see you!” Rapunzel squealed. Some of Cassandra’s anxiety ebbed and she found a smile tugging at her lips.

“Good to see you too, Raps.”

“Your neighbor let me in. I think she said her name was Ester? So nice! Could stand to wear a little more color, but she had the cutest backpack! You have to show me everything! Do you like your new apartment? You’re so much closer to campus now!” Rapunzel swayed excitedly, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

“Slow down Raps, let me get my coffee first. Do you want anything?” Rapunzel was already through the door exploring Cassandra’s new apartment. Cassandra sighed. That girl could outmatch the energizer bunny and still have enough enthusiasm left to run a marathon.

“Oh! I brought you something!” Rapunzel dashed back out to pick up a little pot of sunflowers by the doorway. “It’s a housewarming gift from Eugene and I!” Rapunzel shoved the pot into Cassandra’s arms. “I was at the grocery store and they had the most amazing flowers and I just had to get you one!” Rapunzel grinned, clearly pleased with her offering.

“Um…thanks?” Cassandra dumped the pot in the window sill. She gave them a skeptical glance. _You have three days before I accidently kill you, spend them wisely._

“So? What do you think?” Rapunzel called out gesturing at the rest of the apartment. “You know I never meant for any of this to happen. Eugene asked and I just couldn’t say no.” Cassandra’s stomach soured. She had been hoping to avoid this conversation.

“It's fine Rapunzel. I get it.” Cassandra did her best not to scowl. “Coffee?” She walked into the kitchen with every intention of ending that particular line of conversation. “It’s not very good, but it’s still pretty strong.” Cassandra poured two cups before returning to the living room. Rapunzel was flipping through the pile of textbooks on the kitchen table. Cassandra handed Rapunzel the smaller cup and then flopped onto the couch.

“You’re in Abnormal Psychology too?” Rapunzel squealed in excitement, holding up one of the text books. “This is going to be _so_ fun! We haven’t had a class together in ages,” she giggled. Cassandra rolled her eyes, the corners of her mouth crinkling into a smile.

“We had a class together last semester. Remember Cog Psych? With Cragotis?”

“Oh yeah! How could I forget Cragotis? He was always so late to class that his head TA would have to start without him.” Rapunzel giggled again, and Cassandra smiled. She had missed this.

“So…how was the end of your summer?” Cassandra peered over the top of her coffee mug.

She and Rapunzel had spent the summer at der Sonne family’s summer house for as long as she could remember. Cassandra’s mother had been Rapunzel’s au pair...until the incident that is. They had been nearly raised together. Even after the incident, Cassandra had been adopted by the der Sonne family’s head of security, Peter, and she had remained one of Rapunzel’s constant companions.

That is, until Eugene had shown up.

“Eugene and I had the best time in Cancun!” Rapunzel launched into a detailed story that involved Eugene fighting a seagull over an ice cream spoon. Cassandra felt wrapped in the warm softness that she always did whenever she found herself around Rapunzel, nodding along to Rapunzel’s elaborate story. She didn’t really mind that Rapunzel’s escapades took up the rest of the morning. The spell was broken when Rapunzel’s ringtone cut in.

“Hi Sammie!” Rapunzel answered with all of her usual sunshine. Cassandra could only faintly hear the other voice on the line.

“Punzie! Can you come over to the house? We need to go over the calendar and the list of events for this semester,” the other voice murmured through the phone. Rapunzel glanced over at Cassandra with an apologetic smile.

“Of course, I’ll be right over.” Rapunzel hung up as Cassandra watched her with annoyance.

“Punzie?” Cass wrinkled her nose. “They call you Punzie?” Rapunzel shifted uncomfortably.

“I thought it was kind of sweet.”

“Why are you letting a bunch of pampered princesses call you Punzie?”

“Well I am running for president this year. It’s a sister thing, you wouldn’t understand.” Cassandra snorted. She understood well enough. Rapunzel was always so busy trying to please everyone else. It made Cassandra a little sick, but this was the way it had always been and she had learned by now that it was best not to interfere.

Cassandra waved Rapunzel off, doing her best to smush the sting of Rapunzel’s departure. Rapunzel gave Cassandra a hug before she left.

“See you tomorrow in class,” Rapunzel beamed as she walked out the door. Cassandra watched her go, and she felt drained. She collapsed dramatically on her couch and stared at the sunflower perched in the window.

 _Of course, she would give me something so…so sunny._ Cassandra hated that Rapunzel thought that a pot of sunflowers would somehow fix everything. She hated even more that it was working.

 _I’m overreacting._ As much as Cassandra disliked Eugene, and she could barely stand him on a good day, for some inane reason he seemed to make Rapunzel happy. If moving in with him would make Rapunzel happy, Cassandra would just have to grit her teeth and bear it.

The dark smelled of earth and rot. Cassandra sat in the barely illuminated darkness and though she had never been claustrophobic, she could feel the weight of the ground above her. Solid and oppressive, like a gloved scream.

She fumbled searching for anything to dispel the darkness and was rewarded with the cold cylinder of a flashlight. The beam illuminated a tunnel yawning endlessly in front of her. The murmur of voices snapped her out of her quick exploration. Cassandra stood to brush herself off, and walked towards the voices. The tunnel groaned and contracted. Cassandra began to run.

“Eugene!” Rapunzel’s desperate calls echoed off the cold stones. Cassandra’s heart pounded in her ears as her chest constricted with panic.

“Rapunzel!” Cassandra called out, desperate for Rapunzel to hear her, to know that she was coming. She burst out of the tunnel into a vast cavern, the ceiling hung with stalactites filled with an eerie green glow. In the center of the room was Rapunzel kneeling beside an unconscious Eugene.

“Rapunzel! What happened?” Cassandra gasped.

“We were just…he was,” Rapunzel choked out through her tears.

“Hey, Raps, it's going to be ok.” Cassandra placed her hand gently on Rapunzel’s shoulder as she knelt down beside her. Her fingers twitched with the desire to reach up and tuck Rapunzel’s hair behind her ear. Cassandra sighed and reached out.

The ground gave an ominous groan. Cassandra snatched her hand back and surveyed the room. Cassandra felt the first stalactite hit the ground deep in her bones. She was on her feet by the second using her iron grip to drag Rapunzel up with her.

“We have to go!” Cassandra begged as Rapunzel struggled against her to grab Eugene.

“I can’t leave him!”

The words “ _you have to trust me, leave him_ ” rolled around in Cassandra’s mouth like an angry bee, but she grit her teeth, grabbed Eugene’s other arm, and the two of them began to drag him out.

For a single breath, Cassandra thought they might make it. Then the floor heaved. Rapunzel, Cassandra, and Eugene pitched forward and tumbled out onto the floor. The cavern felt as if it had exhaled as Cassandra realized that not only was the ceiling collapsing, but the floor was going with it.

Cassandra tried to stand, but she was hopelessly caught, a fallen pillar pinned her to the floor. Rapunzel stood it a daze, her eyes darting between Cassandra and Eugene’s prone form.

“Raps please,” she begged, her voice ragged with fear.

“Cass,” Rapunzel wept as she turned away. Cassandra did her best to free herself, but the stones tore at her fingers leaving bloody streaks. A fine dust rained down from the ceiling before breaking all at once like an egg. Cassandra screamed as the rot filled her lungs and the light faded.

Cassandra shot up in bed with sweat plastering her shirt to her back, and ran her fingers through her hair. Perhaps not the most ideal well to begin her day, but at least the nightmare had woken her with enough time to get coffee before her first class.


	3. Chapter 2: A House with a Ghost

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will be updating every two weeks on either Friday or Saturday!

“Denial — is the only fact

Perceived by the Denied —

Whose Will — a numb significance —

The Day the Heaven died —

And all the Earth strove common round —

Without Delight, or Beam —

What Comfort was it Wisdom — was —

The spoiler of Our Home?”

\- _Denial--is the only fact_ , Emily Dickinson

Two weeks in, and Cassandra could already tell that this year was going to be a rough one. Notes covered the couch that she lay sprawled out on like a fine dust. She was doing her best to compose a piece for her modern fiction class but despite her outline, none of the pieces seemed to be coming together in a cohesive story.

 _How inconvenient. How rude._ Cassandra made a face when her notes stared back at her, failing to knit themselves together.

An alarm went off on her phone, and a genuine smile crossed her face. Tonight was the first night of the semester that the Pen and Paper Roleplaying Club was meeting and Cass had been looking forward to it all summer.

She had joined the club her freshman year completely by accident, following a series of mistaken, though probably well-meaning, directions from Eugene. She cringed at the memory of ever thinking that he might be reliable. Instead of ending up at the sorority rush event that she had begrudgingly agreed to attend, she ended up wandering into the RPG club’s first meeting, angsty, moody, and irritated, all of which turned out to be excellent fodder for role playing.

In time she found that D&D was a great stress reliever for her, an escape into a new character in a new story that she had complete control over. It didn’t hurt that she was, in her opinion, an excellent writer which helped to make her characters more interesting and robust.

Cassandra grabbed her game satchel and dice bag and headed out across campus to Hevering Hall. Technically Hevering was a sad excuse for a student lounge, with a slow-moving coffee shop on the first floor and a food court in the basement. Cassandra liked to think of it more as a liminal space, especially on D&D night.

The Pen and Paper club met in the basement every Friday night between seven and midnight. Although the cafeteria tables were perfect for hosting games, the lights were always turning off if people were too still and there was an ever-present odor of lunches long past. Cassandra loved it. As strange as it was, the space always had an aura that appealed to Cassandra, and it didn’t hurt that on good weeks the soup stand left their crackers out, prime for poaching. By the time Cassandra arrived, the room was already full of players, new and old, ambling about in anticipation.

Cassandra wearily glanced around the crowd, hoping to not see anyone that she knew. Although she had never been ashamed of playing D&D, she had always felt like this was her place. There was a certain anonymity that the Pen and Paper club gave her and she felt like she could let her walls down in a way that she wasn’t always comfortable doing with some of her closer friends. Glancing around, she was relieved to recognize a few people that she had gotten to know over the last few years, but she was mostly met with a crowd of new faces.

Settling down at a table, she waited for the club heads to call the meeting to a start and begin the process of dividing everyone up into groups. As usual, there were several members offering to run the ever-popular Dungeons and Dragons, a table top game for which this club was technically named, but she was surprised to find that there were several other table top games that also made a showing in the new swathe of offerings. Familiar titles like Blades in the Dark and Dungeon World, as well as less familiar games such as Rogue Trader and Hunter the Vigil, also made an appearance. Cassandra patiently listened while each game master pitched their game before she settled on a classic game of Dungeons and Dragons. Maybe later in the year she would branch out, but she was a sucker for the familiar. She had had such a rough start to her year that she really needed a familiar cushion to fall back on for her Friday nights.

The D&D game was run by a long-time member by the name of James Dennings. Cassandra had never really been in one of his games, but he had a reputation for taking on new players and for being an excellent mentor to the freshmen.

Within the group, Cassandra only recognized one of the players as a returning club member; Hugo or Harry or something. She could only really remember the Tiefling rogue named Sir Bearymore that he had played in a game last year. The rest of the group was made up of three freshmen who looked to be at least friendly with one another if not generally terrified of the upperclassmen.

James started the table off with brief introductions, during which Cassandra confirmed that the player she knew was in fact Hugo. Addy, the first freshman introduced, shyly pulled out a bag of store-bought cookies from her backpack explaining that her group back home always brought snacks on game days. Cassandra could already tell that Kurt, the tall gangly freshman that acted like he was still growing into his height, was an asshole when he announced that he had already made his character sheet and didn’t need any help. She sighed and rolled her eyes, there was always one in every group.

Varian was the final freshman to introduce himself, bubbling over with bravado and confidence despite the carelessly forgotten pair of lab safety goggles that perched on his head.

"Nice goggles," Cassandra remarked, the words coming out a little snider than she intended. _Be nice_ she thought, these are new freshmen.

“Huh-what? Goggles?” Varian reached for his head, the discovery of a pair of goggles still on his head immediately knocking some of the wind out of his sails. He snatched the goggles off, his cheeks reddening with embarrassment.. “Oh, whoops, my bad. I just had lab for organic chem, and I uh, guess I forgot to take them off. Heh. That’s embarrassing.” Cassandra felt a little bit bad for throwing him off.

“Organic chem? That’s pretty advanced for a freshman isn’t it?” She tried to amend. Varian beamed and his shoulders straightened.

“Psh, if you think _that’s_ advanced, then you should see what we do in Baja,” he laughed. Cassandra remembered Baja as one of the crazy mechanical engineering groups on campus. She lifted an eyebrow. _Who is this kid_?

Before long everyone had their characters sorted out. Cassandra was playing an elvish ranger with an owl companion.

“So, uh, what are you gonna name your owl?” Varian asked, craning his neck to see her character sheet. Cassandra glared at him.

“Owl.” The look on Cassandra’s face must have spoken volumes because all Varian could only spudder an unintelligible response while Addy did her best to smother a laugh.

The rest of the night went kind of like that her Cassandra would throw out sarcastic barbs and the kid, _Varian_ she kept correcting herself, would brush them aside either because he couldn’t hear them or didn’t care, Cassandra wasn’t quite sure which. By the end of the night, his bouncing optimism buoyed even Cassandra's heavy and tired spirit and she felt herself remembering how much she liked playing D&D and how it felt like such an escape.

By the time Cassandra returned home, she had forgotten all about the dreams that had plagued her since the beginning of the semester as well as the spiderweb tattoo that didn’t seem to fade.

A strange package greeted Cassandra at the door when she got home from classes. Wrapped in indigo silk was a carefully tied bundle of small white flowers, jagged leaves, and a sprig of lavender. Cassandra picked up to inspect the bundle further and a note slipped out:

_Cassandra, this should help with the dreams. Mix a pinch of the yarrow and mugwort with hot water before bed and place the lavender under your pillow. – Ester, Apartment 2_

Cassandra stared at the note. _How did Ester know about the dreams?_ At the end of the day it didn’t really matter. It had been nearly two weeks of nightmares and confusing dreams where that strange little girl taunted her with meaningless stories and cryptic warnings. Cass was tired. That night she mixed a pinch of the mugwort and yarrow with some hot water and stuffed the lavender under her pillow.

“This better work,” she told Owl before closing her eyes and letting sleep take her.

 _Nothing_. Cassandra laughed; she didn’t have a single dream last night! Things were going to get better.

As quickly as they started, the dreams faded into haunted memories and weird reflections. Even though she no longer felt the fear of wandering through broken, hungry mazes or climbing impossibly tall trees at night, Cassandra never quite got rid of the feeling that something was following her. The haze of paranoia was worse whenever she caught her reflection, in mirrors or newly washed cups, through windows and on all manor of other reflective surfaces. Cassandra knew that it had something to do with her apartment because whenever she was far enough away for the house to be out of sight, she felt the weight of scrutiny dissipate.

On her way home one particularly brisk fall day, when the Bradford pear was at the peak of its color before putting on its winter skeleton, she thought she saw her curtains flutter, as if someone had been peering out her apartment window. The impression of being watched was so strong that she could feel herself reaching to rub the purple cobwebs on her wrist. Cassandra caught herself as her finger began to absently trace the lines, gripping her wrist to hide the lines. That night, Cassandra dug out a small tube of scar cream from the bottom of her med kit and carefully applied it until she could no longer see the scars.

A week of careful application and yet the scars refused to fade. In fact, at night, when Cassandra had all but lowered her guard, they seemed to delicately curl and spin along her wrist, like their likeness in a morning breeze. The first time it happened, she jerked out of her sleepy doze in fear. When her heart rate settled, she thought that she heard the whisper of her name.

 _Cassandra,_ it called to her like the siren song from books. Sweet and bell-like.

“What?” She called out to the darkness.

 _Oh Cassandra._ The words seemed to curl through her mind.

“What do you want from me?” Cassandra screamed at the night in frustration, silently begging for it to leave her be, to let her sleep.

She was so tired.

The animated tattoos and whispering voice was just the beginning. Now, things really started to take a turn. Books from her shelf started to show up on the table, mostly stacked, but sometimes opened. Cups that had been in the sink appeared on the counter top. Once Owl’s mournful wailing led her to find his catnip mouse on top of the bookshelves, a spot that she herself could only reach with a chair.

“How did you get up there?” She implored the little mouse when she brought it down, baffled by its placement. It wasn’t long before the weird occurrences started to coalesce in her mind into a whispered name. _Ghost_. The same word used to describe her apartment when that strange neighbor from downstairs had welcomed her to the building.

Cassandra tried to brush it off. She was too sensible. She didn’t believe in such things as _ghosts_. Surely, she was just forgetful. Sometimes books fall off tables. Sometimes Owl moved his mouse into a place that later he couldn’t get to. Sometimes weird things got written on her papers. It happened! Didn’t mean that anything was haunting her! The more the evidence piled up, the more Cassandra started to believe that there was a tiny possibility of a tiny-maybe-real-absolutely-not-a-big-deal ghost living in her apartment.

Without any idea what to do with the ghost, Cassandra decided that maybe it would be best if she visited her downstairs neighbors. Molly had been the one to sense the ghost after all and Ester had helped with the dreams. Perhaps they could help.

Cassandra made it all the way to the door on the first floor before she convinced herself that she was being silly and that of course this was stress related.

There was no ghost in 2903 Apartment 3. Never was, never would be, and that was the end of that.

Classes continued, and the weird occurrences continued. Sometimes with startling frequency, for it felt like the more Cassandra willed there not to be a ghost, the more the ghost wanted to make itself known. For Cassandra to acknowledge it. _Her,_ she corrected. For Cassandra to acknowledge _her._

Owl looked up at the little blue girl floating next to him. She was strange, but she was good company when Cassandra was away.

“It is not time, but she will see soon enough.” Owl cocked his head and yowled a small question back.

“Perhaps,” the ghost nodded in agreement, adjusting her spectral gloves.

The little girl turned away from Owl towards the sunflower in the window. True to her word and despite great effort, Cassandra had managed to kill the little plant. The girl sighed and reached out to stroke one of its limp leaves, dipping her finger in the over-damp soil. Spectral as she was, a single drop of dew clung to it and she used that to trace the pot’s rim.

“Breathe,” she whispered.

Slowly at first, water began to leach out of the soil and into the edges of the pot, like a spreading ink drop viewed in reverse. One by one, the stems strengthened and the leaves stood away from the pot’s edge. Like a yawn, the petals of the once drowned flowers uncurled and stretched lazily up towards the sunny window. With a hum of approval, she wandered off to wait for Cassandra’s reaction.

Eventually, Cassandra couldn’t come up with any more excuses to avoid seeing Rapunzel and Eugene together in the same room and her acidic guilt compelled her to invite them over.

The day before her stomach filled with knots as she wandered around the apartment desperately cleaning. She needed it to appear as if things were going well for her, despite her growing anxiety that there might in fact be a real ghost, if she admitted that sort of thing to herself, living in the apartment. There had been a few occasions in the past few days in which she tried to knock on her neighbor's door, but every time she had found an excuse to talk herself out of it.

 _It wasn’t a big deal, ghosts aren’t real, I’m sure they’re busy and have better things to do_. Anything to keep from admitting out loud that something might in fact be wrong.

The night before, she drank her dream tea and stared up at the cracks in the ceiling. Her dreams were full of laughter and stars and she woke with lead in her stomach. Nonetheless, Cassandra was utterly determined to put on her best game face.

She picked out her favorite sweater and jeans before hopping in the shower. The fan, which had struggled since she moved in, finally decided that today was the day that it was to go on strike for how hard Cassandra worked it with her long showers. By the time she got out of the shower, the room was filled with a thick wet fog, covering the mirror in a steamy film.

“Piece of junk fan,” she muttered to herself before wiping the mirror off with her palm. About to put her toothbrush in her mouth, she stared.

For a split second, Cassandra was absolutely certain that the girl with the elegant buns from her dream had been in her bathroom, delicately perched on the towel rack, grinning. Cassandra slammed into the counter as she whipped her head around to search the bathroom for the girl.

Empty. She wasn’t sure if she was supposed to breathe out in relief or in with apprehension, but she was saved by a buzz from her phone.

_On our way :)_

Sighing, Cassandra finished brushing her teeth and getting dressed. It was time to face the inevitable.

Walking into her kitchen, she flipped on the coffee maker and rummaged around in her fridge, looking for something that resembled a brunch item to present to Raps and Eugene. _Eggs_ , she hastily decided. Maybe there was bread in the cabinet? Assembling everything on the table, a bit of a pitiful offering, Cassandra turned back into the kitchen to grab the cups.

Again, there was a moment when she could have sworn that she could see the reflection of the grin of that strange little girl staring back at her. The cup slipped out of her fingers and promptly shattered on her kitchen floor, timed nearly perfectly to the knock on her door.

"No! I can’t catch a break today." Cassandra grumbled.

Answering the door, Cassandra was immediately swept up into a huge bear hug from Rapunzel. For a brief second, Cassandra let herself enjoy the floral scent of Rapunzel’s shampoo before Eugene barged in.

"Well this is...charming." Eugene did not look impressed. Cassandra broke the hug and backed up so that she would have the space to cross her arms over her chest and still look imposing.

"Thanks Fitzherbert."

"This the best you could do, Cas _san_ dra? Ha! I bet you had to _pay_ the landlord to convince them to let you live here!” Eugene threw back in triumph. Cassandra rolled her eyes.

“That’s how rent works, genius. Why don’t you go f-”

“Cass! Why don’t you show Eugene where the plates are? We brought muffins!” Rapunzel beamed at the two of them. Cassandra swung the door open and Rapunzel pushed past her and made a beeline for the sunflowers, still in the window looking pure and bright in the morning light.

 _That isn’t right,_ Cassandra thought.

"Cass," Rapunzel beamed. "You did it! The sunflowers look so good, I knew you just needed something to take care of."

Cassandra regarded the sunflowers with suspicion. _You’re supposed to be dead_. She did her best to glare them back into their grave with her mind's eye. The fridge door in the kitchen creaked open.

“Not much in here,” Eugene called out through a mouthful of muffin.

“Plates?” Rapunzel asked after him. Cassandra could hear a muffled grumble and the fridge closed.

"So, how are you doing?" Rapunzel turned back to Cassandra with a reaffirming smile, rocking back and forth on her heels in the center of the room.

"I'm sorry what?" Cassandra looked away from the offending plant. Rapunzel's brows creased with worry. "Me? I'm fine. Totally fine."

"Oh," Rapunzel said, looking perhaps a little harder than Cass would have liked. She squirmed a bit under Rapunzel's gaze. "It's just you’ve been so tired lately. I just feel like you've been avoiding Eugene and I a little bit." Cassandra looked around the apartment doing her best to focus on anything other than Rapunzel's worrying stare.

"It's nothing Raps, just school. You know how things are." She did her best to give Rapunzel a reassuring smile.

Out of the corner of her eye, Cassandra watched as a book on the kitchen table slowly started to slide towards the edge. Just her luck that her maybe-possibly-ghost would want to make friends with Rapunzel. She silently begged the book to stop moving.

Catching Cassandra's distracted look, Rapunzel turned around just in time to watch one of Cassandra's psychology textbooks tumble off the table.

"What was that" Rapunzel asked, her beaming smile starting to slide off into a look that Cass could not quite interpret.

"Oh, you know old houses. The table is just a little bit unsteady,” Cass did her best to reassure Rapunzel. "Coffee?"

Rapunzel nodded in a little bit of stiff confusion, but allowed Cassandra to gently guide her over to the table to sit down with a cup of freshly brewed coffee in her hand.

"Fitzherbert? Want some?" Cassandra called out to the kitchen knowing full well that Eugene was probably raiding her cabinets, or admiring his reflection somewhere, instead of grabbing the plates.

As she looked over her shoulder, she could have sworn that she caught the reflection of that girl in purple on the stainless-steel trimmings of her coffee maker. The girl looked a little bit like she might be laughing. Cass vigorously rubbed the bridge of her nose.

This was going to be a long morning.

"Cass," Rapunzel forced a smile that was meant to feel comforting, and leaned in as if to conspire with Cass. "You know that you can tell me if anything is bothering you, right? Me and Eugene."

Eugene emerged from the kitchen with half a banana in his hand looking utterly horrified by the suggestion of Cassandra confiding in him. Rapunzel gave him a playful glare.

"What? The dragon lady doesn’t need any of _my_ help," he defended, mouthful of stolen banana.

"Eugene,” Rapunzel chided. "Be nice."

"No, really. Everything is fine." Cassandra reassured as a book on the bookshelf tipped over. Everyone jumped at the sound of it hitting the ground. Cassandra's smile widened into her fakest, most reassuring smile.

"Ok?" Rapunzel prodded. Cass could feel the searching worry coat Rapunzel's tone like honey, but Cass wasn't ready to admit that living on her own was already a complete disaster, so she bit her tongue and did her best to keep the rest of the morning a normal brunch.

By some miracle, there were no more incidents and it seemed that the ghost had decided that it (she?) was willing to leave Cassandra alone, for now. Cass, Rapunzel, and Eugene filled the rest of the morning with talk of classes (Cassandra and Rapunzel shared two), and stories about parties. Eugene's fraternity seemed to be an endless source of shenanigans. Before long, a musical scale played on Rapunzel's phone.

"Yes? Oh my god! I'm so sorry!" Rapunzel glanced over at Cassandra with an apologetic look, "Yes, I'll be right over!" After she hung up the phone, Rapunzel stood up and went to put her coffee cup on the edge of the sink. "I'm really sorry, but I have to go. We’re having an emergency sorority chapter meeting."

"Oh? Did they run out for pillows for the weekly pillow fight?" Cassandra arched a brown in suspicion.

"Ha, pillow fight. I'd pay to see that," Eugene snorted.

"No, nothing like that it's-"

CRASH.

The cup that had been sitting on the edge of the sink had tumbled off the counter and shattered across the floor. Cass stared mournfully at the shard of a smiling cat face and got the distinct feeling that the ghost was making her encore.

"Oh Cass! I'm so sorry!" Rapunzel got up to grab a towel from the sink to help clean up the mug. Cassandra snatched the towel away.

"No, it's fine. Go attend to your emergency, I'm sure they need you to run and get new nail polish or whatever you do in a Sorority on a girls’ night." Rapunzel flashed her an appreciative smile before turning to Eugene. Eugene just smiled.

"Let's go Blondie, duty calls!" He kissed Rapunzel on the cheek as the two stood and walked to the door. Cassandra followed them out.

"This was fun Cass," Rapunzel smiled, "We need to do this again!"

"Sure Raps." Cass couldn’t help the beaming smile that wriggled its way onto her face every time she had Rapunzel's full attention. Everything felt brighter. Cassandra closed the door behind them and leaned against it. Glaring into her living room.

"Ok ghost, this has gone on long enough." She grabbed an umbrella that was leaning on the door frame and brandished it at the empty space. "Show yourself!"

The room only answered with silence, nothing coming forward to answer her challenge. After a few tense seconds, Cassandra started to feel a little silly and childish and she put her umbrella away before heading into the finish cleaning up the shattered remains of her mug. Owl hopped up onto the couch, meowed once at the fluttering curtain, before laying down to watch Cassandra.

By Monday morning, the misplaced papers, tipped books, and overall general chaos had Cassandra a hair’s breadth away from snapping. After a morning of frustrating classes and a disappointing meeting with her thesis advisor in which he frowned at her through heavy eyebrows at her distinct lack of progress, Cassandra found herself pounding on her downstairs neighbor’s door.

“Yes? Hello?” Molly propped open the door as she twisted her messy hair up into a ponytail. “Oh. You had better come in.” Molly slid aside and led Cassandra into the apartment.

The layout was a carbon copy of her own apartment, except that books of all shapes, ages, and sizes filled every conceivable surface of the apartment. Piles filled the table supporting half forgotten tea cups, tomes were double stacked on the bookshelf, even the kitchen had books spread haphazardly across it’s counter. Ester, the other resident who Cassandra had yet to meet, sat perched on the edge of the couch staring at a cluster of herb-filled bottles on the floor, her long black dress pooling like oil around her feel.

Cassandra stood in the doorframe, unsure where to stand and what to say. Just as the silence began to feel particularly oppressive, Molly shoved a new tea cup into her hands and Cass was overwhelmed with the sharp scent of mint and citrus. Molly moved an untidy heap of books from one of the kitchen table chairs before settling down to stare at Cassandra.

“So…” The words felt thick in Cassandra’s mouth as she tried to explain what was going on in her apartment without sounding like a complete idiot.

“You were right,” Cass blurted out; her voice sounded reedy and strange even to her own ears. Molly lifted an eyebrow before exchanging an unreadable look with Ester. “About the ghost. I have one and it won’t leave me alone.” Molly and Ester glanced at one another again before coming to some sort of silent agreement.

“Have you tried talking to it?” Ester offered, her voice a thick rumble that did not match anything that Cassandra would have expected.

“What?” Cassandra frowned in confusion.

“Have you tried talking to the ghost,” Ester repeated as if talking to a particularly troublesome child.

“Talking. To the ghost,” Cassandra said slowly as she mulled the advice over.

“Well,” Molly offered slowly, “to find out what it wants.”

“She,” Cassandra corrected.

“Ok, to find out what _she_ wants,” Molly corrected.

Cassandra stared at her two neighbors, noticing for the first time the delicate, woven charms pinned to the slowly melting candles on the window sill and the strange charcoal drawings that covered the walls like a second wallpaper. Beautiful, graphic images that stared hungrily at her. Ester caught her gaze and shook her head a bit. Cassandra looked back at Molly, her skepticism losing some of its sharpness.

“So what? I need a Ouija board or something?” Cassandra wrinkled her nose as Molly threw her head back in laughter.

“No, no nothing like that,” Molly said, desperately trying to crush her pearls of laughter. Something about her laugh had Cassandra’s shoulders release the tension that they had been holding. “Just talk to her and see what happens.” Molly shrugged. Cassandra stared at Molly over the rim of her teacup before taking a tentative sip.

Cassandra stood at the precipice at her apartment and took three fortifying deep breaths. In through her nose, out through her mouth. She closed her eyes before inserting her key into the lock and bursting through the door. Perched delicately on her couch stroking Owl as he sat in the middle of her incorporeal lap was the girl from her dream. The girl turned to look at Cassandra as if she had been waiting for her return.

“Hello Cassandra.”


	4. Chapter 3: When It All Falls Down

And if you go two steps to the right

You must take the one down to the left

An proceed to the end of the board

To wait for the music to rise—

-Jean Garrigue, _The Chess Dance_

Silence hung heavily over the room, pressing tightly upon Cassandra’s chest. She stared at the ghost on her couch. The ghost on her couch stared back. Owl lashed his tail back and forth in agitation, sensing the tension of the room.

“You…you…” Cassandra fumbled, pointing a trembling finger at the girl. She realized that as many times as she had met or seen this mysterious girl in her dreams, she had never asked the girl for her name.

The girl rolled her eyes. The acidic words died on Cassandra’s lips as the accusation muddled into a question, stealing Cassandra’s rage. “Ghost?”

The girl raised a mocking eyebrow. “You may call me Zhan Tiri if you wish,” the girl, Zhan Tiri, offered, her grin softening its predatory edge.

“Zhan Tiri,” Cassandra rolled the name around, testing the edges. The weight of it felt clumsy and she could feel her cheeks redden.

This wasn’t going as she had planned. In her mind, she envisioned storming in to demand that the ghost show itself and then…well she hadn’t quite gotten that far, but it was certainly a far cry from whatever this was shaping up to be. Cassandra shifted her weight back and forth, unsure of what to do next. The silence that covered the room was deafening.

"H-how?" Cassandra stammered. "You...you were in my dreams! I saw you in the reflection of my mirror! The reflection of my coffee maker! You broke one of my mugs!"

With every word, she felt herself gain control, crushing the feeling of confusion with the growing warmth of indignance. Zhan Tiri looked up for her rhythmic stroking of Owl and raised an eyebrow.

“Don’t bore me with your small grievances.” Zhan Tiri waved dismissively. “I did no such thing. You, my dear, dropped the mug.” She racked over Cassandra with a critical gaze, but offered no further explanation.

"How could you possibly be here?"

"You could say I have a penchant for faerie tales." The predatory smile returned for a split second. Cassandra's hands went cold and she felt a chill creep up her back. The Grimm’s fairytale book. It must be. She knew something had been weird about that whole thing.

" _Kinder und Hausmärchen._ "

"Yes indeed, _Kinder und Hausmärchen_."

"Who are you? No, _what_ are you?"

Zhan Tiri gave Cassandra a long, measured stare and she got the distinct feeling of being weighed with immeasurable judgement before Zhan Tiri's heavy gaze flicked away with disinterest.

"Like I said. A friend, or at least I'd like to be," Zhan Tiri shrugged.

Cassandra stared. "So, what now?"

"What now indeed."

Cassandra and Zhan Tiri stared at one another for what felt like an eternity before Owl hopped out of Zhan Tiri's ethereal lap and began to weave in and out of Cassandra's legs, begging for lunch. Just like that, the spell was broken and Cassandra wandered in a daze into the kitchen. She couldn't remember pulling Owl's food out of the cabinet, nor could she remember filling his bowl until it spilled out onto her carpet.

When she finally came out of her foggy haze, Cassandra found herself sitting on the couch next to a ghost that she hadn't believed in. Cassandra glanced over at Zhan Tiri, before sighing, digging out a partially finished paper from her backpack, and settled down to begin reading.

_Might as well make the best of this,_ Cassandra thought. She scratched out a few notes feeling the need to break the silence.

"So," Cassandra began. "...where are you from?"

Cassandra felt like screaming over such an insipid question, but she had no idea how to hold a conversation with a ghost. Zhan Tiri snapped out of whatever distracted thoughts she had been wrapped up in before glancing back at Cassandra.

"It hardly matters. I was great, and now I am but a memory. A shade of what I once was."

Cassandra raised an eyebrow. Zhan Tiri, it seemed, was melodramatic. Cassandra twirled her pen around her fingers mirroring her own spinning thoughts. The discomfort made her fingers itch.

“I’m going to turn some music on,” Cassandra announced, hooking her phone up to a speaker that had been collecting dust in the time that she had spent living alone. She flipped through her Pandora stations before settling on classical, hoping to appease her house guest, and then refocusing on her impending essay.

One page turned to six and the dimming sunlight announced the subtle passage of time. Cassandra stood and stretched her stiffening limbs, stacking her notes and returning them to her bag. To her surprise, Zhan Tiri seemed completely engrossed in the music, her chin gently bobbing to the swelling notes. For the first time in months, the stillness of Cassandra’s single apartment didn’t feel so vast.

Just like that Cassandra found herself slipping into an odd rapport with Zhan Tiri. During the day, Cassandra would spend her time on campus invested in her classes and Zhan Tiri would disappear to wherever it was that she went and, in the evening, the two of them would sit on the couch and listen to music while Cassandra worked. By Friday, Cassandra was feeling weirdly comfortable about the whole affair.

“Where are you going?” Cassandra looked up from the satchel that she had been backing to see Zhan Tiri giving her a quizzical look.

“D&D, it’s a Friday.”

“D&D?” Zhan Tiri cocked her head.

“Yeah, you know Dungeons and Dragons? It’s a popular roleplaying game?” There was a brief moment when Cassandra wondered what kind of witch a Victorian ghost would think she was at the mention of dragons.

“How does one play this Dungeons and Dragons?”

“Oh, you know, everyone makes a character and then you roleplay them in a fantasy world. Killing dragons, finding treasure, all of that. It’s like collaborative storytelling.”

“...killing dragons? Interesting.”

“I could play a podcast for you about it while I’m out if you’d like.” Zhan Tiri’s evident curiosity was not the reaction that Cassandra had been expecting. Zhan Tiri gave her a thoughtful nod.

“I would tolerate that.” Cassandra set up the podcast before heading out the door. “Enjoy your slaying of dragons.”

Cassandra attempted to respond, but Zhan Tiri was paying fiercely close attention to the story that was unfolding. Cass laughed and headed out.

Cassandra trotted across campus to make it to D&D on time. The fading autumn had painted all the trees glorious shades of reds and oranges. As she watched the wind sweep the leaves in a lazy spiral, Cassandra found herself constructing a poem in her head. She was so wrapped up in her own thoughts that as she rounded the corner near the engineering building, she ran smack into a familiar face from her D&D group.

"Varian! Didn't see you there." Papers flew everywhere and Varian desperately tried to snatch at the felled soldiers.

"Oh! Hey Cassie, erm, Cassandra, I was just … umm on my way to D&D," he said while stuffing papers into his satchel. "Sorry I didn’t see you." Varian stuck his hand in his hair and ran his fingers through it, shifting back and forth from foot to foot. Cassandra shrugged, doing her best to dissuade his clear anxiety.

"So...Varian," she began. Cassandra stumbled. She and Varian were certainly friends during table top, but they weren't really friends outside of the stale basement of Hevering;she wasn't sure how to proceed. "What were you up to just now?" she glanced at the remaining stack of papers messily clutched in his hands. Varian beamed, his flustered embarrassment quickly evaporating.

"Oh this! It’s a little project that I've been working on. I just got started in a research lab in the materials science department, and the PI already gave me my own project, if you can believe _that_. The project is looking at the optoelectronic properties of these nanoscale gold-silver alloys-- ”

Varian lost her immediately, but Cassandra nodded politely as he continued to ramble.She had to hand it to the kid, he sure was passionate about what he was doing. Everything about him lit up as he waved his hands around in emphasis.

“…And that’s why working in a materials lab has been a far better experience than working in an organic lab. It’s way more interesting, plus, there’s the added benefit of not having to work with all that nasty organic stuff. _Way_ lower probability of stuff literally blowing up in your face,” Varian finished as they reached Hevering. “I would know,” he added under his breath.

Electing to ignore that last comment, Cassandra opened the door and was welcomed with the familiar sounds of the pregame social hour.

“Nice hair, Goggles,” Hugo sniped as Varian and Cassandra sat down at the table. When Hugo started to laugh. Cassandra glanced over at Varian, and was surprised to see that she hadn’t noticed the newly dyed streak of blue in Varian’s hair, the color a perfect match to Cassandra’s blue-dyed tips

“Umm…I can explain?” Varian cringed away from Cassandra’s confused glare.

“Crushing on the meanest lesbian in the club?” Hugo wheezed, wiping away tears. “I’m never going to let you live this down.”

“I don’t know about you, but I am READY to slay some dragons heh heh,” Varian laughed awkwardly, staring out at the now fully gathered D&D group. Hugo cackled harder, but let James start the session.

As it turned out, Varian lived in the same direction as Cassandra, so the two of them walked home together after D&D. Once talk of the night’s session died down, Cassandra raised an eyebrow at Varian.

“So…” Cassandra began.

“Heh, yeah I guess I went a little bit overboard,” Varian flinched out, running a hand through his hair.

“A little?” Cassandra and Varian stared at one another for a moment before both broke out in gales of laughter.

The two filled the rest of the walk with talk of classes and hobbies. It turned out Varian was in a few classes that Cassandra had taken and she promised she would dig out some of her old exams. By the time they reached Varian’s building, the awkwardness of the night had faded.

Cassandra stumbled into the library coffee shop Saturday morning a few minutes before she had agreed to meet Rapunzel to work on their abnormal psychology partner project. As much as she was entertained by having Zhan Tiri as a bizarre new roommate, her recitations of archaic prose and poetry at 3am was starting to grate on Cassandra’s nerves. It was certainly not doing anything for her sleep schedule. Cassandra ordered a tall black coffee and considered asking from an extra shot of espresso.

_Too much,_ she thought before sighing and handing her card across the counter to the harried cashier. The morning rush at the Daily Grind was always quite the bustle, and though their coffee was terrible Cassandra had made friends with at least a few of the baristas who always seemed to have her drink ready before she had finished ordering.

Cassandra thanked the barista, grabbed her coffee, and made her way to the library to find Rapunzel. By the time Cassandra arrived Rapunzel had managed to grab a prime table on the student commons side of the library. Cassandra caught Rapunzel's attention with a small wave and quietly slipped into a chair across from her. Rapunzel smiled up at Cassandra, putting a finishing artistic flourish in her planner.

"Cass! Wow, you look so tired! What happened? Have you been up late studying?" The flood of questions washed over Cassandra and she felt herself smile at the overwhelming display of affection and concern.

"I'm fine Raps, nothing that I can't handle." Rapunzel cocked her head in concern, she had been doing that a lot recently in response to some of Cassandra's more obvious question dodging.

"Sooo what have you been working on so hard recently? You’re always so tired these days." Rapunzel prodded, unwilling to let Cassandra off the hook this time. Cassandra waved her off and frowned slightly.

"Let's just get started on our project. We need to pick a research question," Cassandra offered, hearing that her tone was too sharp to soothe Rapunzel.

"Cass...you know you can tell me anything? Right? Just...talk to me." Cassandra stared at Rapunzel and realized that she was worrying her lip between her teeth, something that Rapunzel only did when she was particularly agitated. Cassandra sighed.

"I... it’s just..." Cassandra started.

"Wait! Have you met someone?!" Rapunzel squealed. Cassandra reeled back with surprise.

"Met someone?"

"Oh my gosh! Cass! You have, haven't you! It all fits! You're always busy or tired or have 'things to do'" Rapunzel triumphantly stated putting air quotes around Cassandra's supposed "things to do".

"Ummm...I guess you could say that?" Cassandra fumbled for a response.

"Why didn’t you tell me! Who is he? What does he look like? When did you meet him?" Rapunzel leaned forward with her chin cupped in her hands, elbows braced on the table. Cassandra blushed and turned to stare at the bookshelves, anywhere where she didn’t have to look at Rapunzel.

"Raps..." Cassandra started, but wasn’t sure where she was going. She could feel her cheeks reddening. “Well, she—”

"Oh? Oh! She! Who is she? Where did you meet? I want to know everything!" Rapunzel corrected quickly. For a second, Cassandra got a glimpse at the social-butterfly-next-in-line-sorority-president that was so easy for her to forget.

"Look, Raps, it’s not like that, she's just a friend."

"Oh, just a _friend_ ," Cassandra cringed at the wink that Rapunzel gave her. “Wait! What if we went on a double date! Oh my gosh that would be so cute! I need to text Eugene –"

“Rapunzel.”

“Ooo we could go to trivia together!”

“Rapunzel!” Cassandra snapped in exasperation.

"What? As your best friend, I want to meet this new _friend_ of yours!"

"You can’t," Cassandra muttered, trying to hide from the doe eyes that Rapunzel was giving her.

"Why not? Come on Cass!"

“Because you can’t. _It’s not like that_.” Rapunzel’s nose wrinkled in frustration and Cassandra saw a flash of hurt in her eyes quickly smoothed into Rapunzel’s trademarked bright smile.

“I call best friend privileges. I want to meet her. Why won’t you let me?” Rapunzel shot back, her face contorting into a stubborn frown. Maybe it was the lack of sleep, maybe it was the constant matchmaking that Rapunzel had subjected her to over the years but Cassandra could feel herself snap.

"Because she's a ghost!" Cassandra shouted. The library was startled into an awkward silence as students from the surrounding tables turned to stare at Cassandra's outburst. Cassandra tried to stare a hole into her psychology book, hoping that the universe would take pity on her and a hole would open in the floor to swallow her. Cassandra glanced up at Rapunzel and was met with a frozen smile of shock.

"What?"

“You heard me,” Cassandra grumbled, pretending to be suddenly engrossed with the cover art of her textbook, too mortified to meet Rapunzel’s gaze.

“Yeah ok. Ghost. Fine, fine! When you’re ready to talk about her I’m here.” Rapunzel huffed, tucking a stray flyaway behind her ear. “Let’s just get to the project.”

Cassandra suppressed the urge to scream instead opting to hum in agreement. The rest of the morning was stilted and awkward. Rapunzel tried several more times to get Cassandra to divulge more about her new mystery “friend” until Cassandra claimed that she had another meeting before fleeing the library.

Cassandra sat across from Zhan Tiri, staring at the chessboard deep in thought. As strange as it was to share her apartment, she relished having someone to play with again. Cassandra reached for her pawn as she wistfully remembered how Rapunzel used to giggle whenever she made a mistake. What Rapunzel lacked in skill, she made up for in sheer enthusiasm.

“How is that…friend of yours?” Zhan Tiri cut in with a pointed look. Cassandra picked up her white pawn and slid it to D4. Zhan Tiri considered her opening before drawing out her knight.

“Which one?” Cassandra replied, advancing a second pawn forward. Zhan Tiri did not play like Rapunzel. She was precise, aggressive, and played to win. Cassandra relished the challenge. Zhan Tiri matched Cassandra’s advance by moving her own pawn forward.

“The one who gifted you the sunflower you seem determined to kill.” Cassandra was once again reminded of the plant in her window that refused to die. Her concentration soured and she snatched up her own knight and shook it at Zhan Tiri in annoyance.

“It was you that brought Rapunzel’s plant back!” She accused before slamming the knight down on the board. Zhan Tiri delicately held her queen’s pawn before meeting Cassandra’s own at the center of the board.

“Perhaps. Rapunzel. The two of you seem close.” Cassandra reached up to capture Zhan Tiri’s pawn before thinking better of it, feeling Zhan Tiri’s words strike closer than she would have liked. Cassandra sighed and moved her knight to C3 instead.

“Yeah. I mean we used to be. I just…it’s just…it's complicated.” Cassandra watched as Zhan Tiri brought a second pawn forward, asserting control of the center of the board. Cassandra ran her fingers through her hair. When had everything gotten so complicated with Rapunzel? Zhan Tiri cocked her head in interest. “I don’t know. Part of me thought it was always going to be the two of us. And then _Eugene_ showed up.” Cassandra shrugged, taking the opportunity to capture Zhan Tiri’s queen’s pawn.

“I would like to meet this Rapunzel.” Zhan Tiri captured Cassandra’s pawn with her knight. Cassandra’s head snapped up. This conversation was sounding too familiar for her taste.

“What? Why?” Cassandra responded by moving her king’s pawn to threaten the knight. Knights were exchanged, but Cassandra was ultimately forced onto the defensive as she captured a second advancing pawn.

“I would like to meet your companions. Perhaps I could set up a friendly game.” Zhan Tiri advanced her queen’s knight for the first time.

“Game?” Cassandra sat back and stared at the board, disliking how Zhan Tiri’s control of the checkered squares was mirrored in her control over their conversation.

“I have been listening to that little podcast that you are so fond of and I must say that I am intrigued. I would like to try my hand at it. An introduction, if you will, to these _friends_ of yours.”

“You want to DM a game? With Rapunzel and I?” The chess game was long forgotten; Cassandra stared at Zhan Tiri with open confusion and she had a flashback to Rapunzel’s pleading eyes in the library. “No. That’s a bad idea. Absolutely not.” Cassandra crossed her arms over her chest as if she had delivered an unshakable argument. Zhan Tiri stared long and hard at Cassandra before gesturing at the board to restart their current game.

Cassandra thought that she had heard the last of it from Rapunzel, but she drastically underestimated her friend’s stubborn determination. Her phone had been buzzing nonstop with a combination of thinly concealed attempts to meet Zhan Tiri and open begging.

_R: Cass! Let’s get coffee before class tomorrow! You could bring a friend ;)_

_C: I said no Raps_

_R: Come on! It’ll be fun_

__

_R: There’s a couple’s night at Trivia tomorrow, you in?_

_C: I’m busy._

__

_R: Please Cass!_

_C: I said no._

__

_R: Hey it's me, Eugene. Please. I’m begging you. Rapunzel will not stop talking about your new “friend”. I personally don’t believe that she’s real but hey? You do you._

_C: She’s not my “friend”! She’s a ghost that lives in my house! We play chess sometimes._

_R: Is it just me or does that sound just a tiny bit crazy?_

_C: Give Rapunzel her phone back Fitzherbert!_

_R: Eugene gave the phone back. Look. Cass. I’m worried about you. We both are._

Cassandra reread her last text from Rapunzel before sucking a deep breath in through her teeth. This had been going on for a few weeks now and she could no longer stand it.

_Whatever,_ she thought, _things can’t get worse._ Cassandra looked up at Zhan Tiri who was perched at the edge of the couch listening to another one of Cassandra’s podcasts.

“You still want to run a game?” Cassandra asked her. Zhan Tiri gave Cassandra a wide grin and Cassandra felt her stomach sink. This was a bad idea. “When?”

“Two weeks. Saturday.” The sinking feeling in Cassandra’s stomach curdled further.

“That’s Halloween.”

“Indeed, it is.”

Cassandra’s fingers hovered against her phone keyboard. She had a bad feeling about all of this. As her confidence waned, her phone pinged with a new text.

_Come on Cass._

Cassandra’s fingers itched with irritation and before she knew what she was typing, she found that she had sent Rapunzel a text that read:

_Ok fine. She’s going to DM a Dungeons and Dragons game for us in two weeks on Saturday._

Cassandra hardly had to wait before the response came back.

_Eeeeee I’m so excited!_

After much debate, Cassandra decided that they probably needed a fourth player for a good game of D&D. That and she wanted a buffer between Rapunzel and Zhan Tiri that wasn’t Eugene. Over the past couple of weeks, Cassandra and Varian had become unlikely friends and he seemed like the ideal choice to invite to this catastrophe in the making.

Varian immediately responded to her text about playing a D&D game with a ghost DM with enthusiasm that bordered on manic. When the day finally came, Varian showed up almost an hour early bouncing on the backs of his heels with all his pent-up energy.

“So! Where’s the ghost?!” Varian immediately asked. Cassandra rolled her eyes at him and pointed at one of the kitchen table chairs politely ordering him to sit down. Varian craned his head around the room looking for Zhan Tiri.

“She’s not here yet. She’s out doing...well, doing whatever it is that she does during the day. Here,” Cassandra said, handing Varian a stack of character sheets and D&D books. “Help me set up.” When the two of them were finished, Cassandra busied herself with ordering pizza for everyone.

“Who else is coming?” Varian prodded, still buzzing with excitement over the prospect of a D&D game run by a ghost.

“Huh?” Cass looked up from her phone.

“I asked who else was coming, all good adventuring parties need at least four people. Are we going to have a team name? Ooo, we could be Team Awesome,” Cassandra raised an eyebrow, “Ok, maybe not, what about Team Ghostbusters? Do you think the ghost will be offended by that? What’s their name?”

“Varian.”

“How did you convince a ghost to run a D&D game anyways? How did a ghost learn how to play D&D?” Varian continued, getting faster and faster until his words started to blur together.

“Varian!”

“Right, sorry, I’m just excited,” Varian rocked back on his heels with a sheepish smile. Cass couldn’t help but return the smile.

“We’re playing with some friends of mine, Rapunzel der Sonne and Eugene Fitzherbert.”

“Oh! I know Eugene! Cool guy.” Varian’s whole face lit up with a smile.

“Wait, what? How do you know Eugene?” Cassandra frowned. The only places that she could fathom them bumping into one another was in the library, which Eugene avoided due to his aversion to all things books and studying, or at a party, which she happened to know gave Varian extreme anxiety. As far as she knew, the two of them ran in completely different circles.

“I met him in an alley once,” Varian replied, interrupting Cassandra’s thoughts. She squinted at him.

“You met him...in an alley once?” she repeated, her mind unable to picture what Eugene and Varian could be doing to meet in an alley.

“Yeah. I was walking home from the library preeetty late a few weeks ago and he and his friends were all standing around this dead rat that must have been hit by one of the security cars.hey all raised their beer cans, and Eugene said ‘pour one out for flat rat’. They all said ‘for flat rat!’ and emptied their cans,” Varian explained in awe. “Cool guy.”

“Yep, that sounds like Fitzherbert,” Cass sighed, rolling her eyes. “Oh, there’s Zhan Tiri.”

Varian nearly gave himself whiplash as he twisted around in his seat to see Zhan Tiri perched, like always, on the edge of the couch.

“Oh my gosh. You’re real!” Cassandra shot Varian a look. “I mean I believed Cassandra but it's so much cooler to actually meet you in person! I’m Varian! Which you probably already know, heh. How did you learn D&D?” Varian asked in a rush of words. Zhan Tiri raised an eyebrow. “Sorry. Rambling.. I’m done now.”

“I’ve gathered.” Zhan Tiri gave Varian a cursory look before coming to sit across from him.

As they waited for Rapunzel and Eugene, Varian and Zhan Tiri chatted about Friends at the Counter, the podcast that she listened to while Cassandra paced back and forth. She couldn’t help but feel nervous about this whole thing. Sometimes she cared so much about Rapunzel’s opinion that it hurt.

Rapunzel and Eugene showed up twenty minutes later, their faces painted with shades of doubt and falseness. Cassandra could tell that though they didn’t believe her, but were trying to be supportive. It wouldn’t have felt so bad if there wasn’t a false edge of conceit to Rapunzel’s eyes.

When Cassandra answered the door, Rapunzel and Eugene were dressed in what Cassandra could only assume had been meant for their previously scheduled Halloween party. Rapunzel was wearing a long pink and purple dress that fell short of her ankles. Her long blonde hair was braided back with lowers and a little tiara sat atop her head. Eugene looked to be matching her princess attire in some respect with a golden breastplate and a helmet with a red feather to top it off. A princess and her knight. _How appropriate_ Cassandra thought, a little part of her dying just a bit more.

"What’s with the costumes?" Varian poked his head out of the kitchen where he had been pouring a cup of coffee. Cassandra had tried to ban him, but it seemed that he had swiped some when she wasn’t looking. This was going to be a long night.

"We're paying Dungeons and Dragons, aren’t we?" Rapunzel smiled, cocking her head.

"Yeah, but you don’t really wear costumes to play? I mean unless you’re LARPing. Then you wear costumes. But we're not. LARPing, I mean," Varian sputtered.

"See! I told you this was a dumb idea! At least I look dashing!" Eugene wilted. Cassandra did her best to hide a smirk at his indignation. "Hey! I saw that!"

"So...Cass...where's this ghost that you keep telling us about?" Rapunzel and Eugene exchanged glances as if this was the first step to a big conversation that ended up with Cassandra and a one way ticket to a mental ward.

"If the players would enter and sit, then we can proceed." Zhan Tiri's ethereal voice floated through the apartment and Rapunzel and Eugene froze, wide eyed. Rapunzel swung her head to look and Cassandra with a smile frozen through shock and Cassandra did her best to return it with a weak, apologetic smile of her own.

_I told you,_ she thought. A pinprick of validation warmed in her stomach as she enjoyed the shock on Rapunzel's face. Cassandra turned into the apartment and led Eugene and Rapunzel over to her kitchen table. The table was already overburdened with the necessary accoutrement for the night, pizza, dice, pencils, and character sheets. Perched at the edge of the table sat Zhan Tiri in all her regal majesty as she stared at the group of newcomers with the smile of the cat that got the cream. Cassandra had to stop herself from pinching the bridge of her nose.

_Why did I ever agree to this,_ she chided herself.

Although the table was round, Zhan Tiri had such a presence that it felt like she sat at the head. Rapunzel cringed at the inherent power dynamic already in play. Rapunzel and Eugene sat down silently at the table, Eugene's mouth hanging open in abject shock. Cassandra frowned at him.

"What?" he said, his jaw snapping shut with a click, breaking the silence that had fallen over the room. "I didn’t expect the ghost to be real."

"Hi, my name is Rapunzel," Rapunzel beamed across the table reaching out as if to shake Zhan Tiri's hand. "It’s good to meet you!"

Zhan Tiri looked at Rapunzel’s hand with disdain as if she had been offered a used tissue.

"Quite." Zhan Tiri did not reach out to take Rapunzel's hand and Rapunzel was forced to retract her hand, the faintest blush simmering at the edges of her cheeks.

_Damn it Zhan Tiri, we talked about this. Be nice_. Cassandra tried to glare at Zhan Tiri, but the ghost girl returned her glare with a triumphant smile.

"Rapunzel, Eugene, this is Zhan Tiri." Cassandra offered to try to break the awkwardness.

“So, Zahn, can I call you Zahn? Ooo what about Teery?” Eugene drawled.

“You may not.” Zhan Tiri’s glare was a fraction away from setting the character sheets on fire.

“Ookay. Zhan Tiri. Got it. Yeesh.”

"Now that the players are assembled let the game begin." Zhan Tiri announced indicating that it was time for the players to choose from the various character sheets that lay stacked on the table. "Choose the character that speaks to you, the one that you feel the most connection to."

Varian was the first to act, snatching at the pile, shuffling through it until he found the wizard.

"Yes!" Varian exclaimed, pumping his fist. "I call the artificer! Or I guess the wizard, but same thing." Cassandra rolled her eyes.

"You would," Cassandra couldn’t help but smile at his predictable choice. Varian smiled back with an innocent smile.

"And what are you choosing?"

"Yoink!" Eugene exclaimed as he grabbed the rouge character sheet. Cassandra surveyed the sheets that littered the table before selecting the fighter.

“We need some sort of healer. Raps?” Cassandra reached to grab the cleric sheet, meaning to hand it to Rapunzel. “What are you—” Cassandra was caught off guard by the full power of Rapunzel’s pleading Bambi eyes. She clutched a sheet to her chest and Cassandra was filled with a slight sinking feeling. Bard. There was one in every group.

“Please! This one just seems so fun! Look! They get to sing all their spells! It’ll be fun!” Varian desperately crossed his hands over his chest in a frantic x shape, but Rapunzel pouted her lip and Cassandra knew that she was sunk.

“Sure Raps, they have a few low-level healing spells. We can make it work.” Varian slapped his face again.

_No healer. This was going to be fun._

The rest of character creation went relatively smoothly. Zhan Tiri allowed Varian to gush about the rules while Cassandra walked Rapunzel, and by extension Eugene, through the rest of character creation. By the time everyone was done, they had created a party of a Bard, a Fighter, a Rogue, and a Wizard.

Fantastic, they were all going to die.

“Your characters stand in a thick jungle,” Zhan Tiri began. “The air is heavy with rain. Behind you lies the remains of a long-forgotten stone building. The vines that twist around the ruins are clearly the only thing holding the structure up.” She paused in her narration and Cassandra noticed a strange smugness fill her expression. “A massive stone door—”A dice clattered across the table.

“I try to pick the lock! Two! That’s good right?” Eugene exclaimed. Varian smacked his face with his hand. Zhan Tiri stared at the table. Cassandra was reminded of a teacher waiting for the class to quiet down before she snapped at them.

“The lock snaps and the door that was not previously locked is now sealed.”

“But I rolled a two! You want to roll low right?”

“High,” Varian offered.

“Yes, hi Varian, what do you want? As I was saying, you want to role low!”

“Are you trying to be dense or did your parents drop you? First of all, you need to roll high and second of all you need to wait until the DM is finished,” Cassandra cut in.

“Well, I’m so-rry Cass _an_ dra that not all of us spend perfectly good Friday nights hiding in basements playing...” Eugene gestured at the table. “Well playing whatever this is.”

“Eugene. Be nice. We said we would play. After all, it’s just a game, and Cass is our friend.” Rapunzel turned to give Cassandra and Zhan Tiri an encouraging smile. “This will be fun! Right Eugene?” Rapunzel turned back to Eugene beaming and he wilted, his bravado wilting ever so slightly.

“Fine!” Eugene threw up his hands. Zhan Tiri once again surveyed the table.

“The massive door stands wretched off its hinges.” Cassandra glared at Eugene. “Beyond the door stretches a long dark hallway. Everyone roll perception,” Zhan Tiri finished.

“17 plus 1, so 18,” Cassandra smiled triumphantly.

“Oh no! I got 6, no wait I have a low modifier, so 5.” Rapunzel complained.

“Ha! 15! Beat that Cassandra! I bet I have an enormous modifier! Huge! I bet it’s so high that I can see everything!” Eugene announced.

“Minus 1. Your wisdom modifier gives you a minus one,” Varian added sheepishly. “I got a 3 minus 1, again because my wisdom is only 8, but that’s because I have high intelligence. Because wizard. Although I’m really more of an engineer,” Varian trailed off. Cassandra lifted an eyebrow. “Right, sorry, 2. I got a 2.”

Zhan Tiri looked out at the players sitting table.

“Roll initiative,” she said with an almost cartoonish grin. Cassandra, Varian, Rapunzel, and Eugene simultaneously grabbed their dice and rolled.

A dip formed in the map as it attempted to swallow itself. The room bent and distorted around the party as a hole in the center of the table formed.

Before anyone could say or do anything, everyone was sucked into the vortex and disappeared with a _pop_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chess game is based on Spassky vs Fischer World Championship 1972. The game resulted in a draw.


End file.
